There are many instances in which a vehicle, such as an automobile, motor cycle, or the like, must be towed from one location to another. This towing can be accomplished using a boom and winch assembly by itself, or can be accomplished by moving the vehicle to be towed onto a bed of a towing vehicle. As used herein, the term towing vehicle will refer to a truck or other such vehicle that has a bed onto which the vehicle to be towed is moved.
To safely and efficiently move a towed vehicle onto a bed of a towing vehicle, the bed and the towed vehicle should be properly lined up. However, often the towed vehicle is in a position and/or orientation which makes it difficult to properly align this towed vehicle with the bed of the towing vehicle. Such a situation may occur, for example, if the towed vehicle has been in an accident and is off of the roadway. Such a vehicle is extremely difficult to move onto the bed of the towing vehicle. In extreme cases, a crane must be used to actually lift the vehicle onto the towing vehicle.
While there are winch assemblies which work to move an item onto the bed of another vehicle, there is no means for automatically aligning the item-moving assembly into a position that is most efficient for the loading process.
Accordingly, there is a need for a means for efficiently moving and guiding a towed vehicle onto and off of the bed of a towing vehicle.
Still further, there is no way of exactly and precisely predicting the relative orientation that will be established between the towed vehicle and the towing vehicle that will be used to move that towed vehicle onto the towing vehicle. That is, the towed vehicle might be in any number of positions and/or locations with respect to the roadway that will be available to the towing vehicle. Therefore, the possible relative orientation between the towing and the towed vehicles may vary greatly and unpredictably. Since the towing vehicle may be limited in the positions and orientations that it can assume, a situation may arise in which a towing vehicle arrives and cannot be used because it cannot efficiently move the towed vehicle onto the bed thereof.
Therefore, not only is there a need for the above-mentioned guiding means, this guiding means must be amenable to accommodating a wide variety of towed vehicle positions and/or orientations relative to the towing vehicle.